Got PRIDE?

P.R.I.D.E. is an acronym for Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence.

My Pinnacle Performance sales, customer service and winning team culture training is driven by the research of world-class organizations; market leaders, customer service champs and many are also considered to be the best places to work in the world. What did these companies do to achieve their market superiority? What are the best practices and principles that guide and motivate their culture, engage and influence their customers, and deliver high-performance results? And, most importantly, how do you apply these winning elements in your organization?

As I pinball around North America training organizations on Pinnacle Performance we learn (and work to adopt and institutionalize) the answers to those questions. Answers that would take far more time than we have here and now.

However, there is something significant you can (and very much should) do now and forever after. That’s something is practicing PRIDE in all that your organization does.

I want to be clear here… Most executives already believe they have PRIDE. If you’re an owner or senior manager then it’s safe to say that you’re likely committed to delivering excellence in your organization. That’s not the problem.

The problem is that results for an organization are rarely the result of the senior executives efforts alone. By and large results originate from the employees that meet, greet and interact with customers (and potential customers) at the point-of-sale. It is here that PRIDE is most vulnerable and often falters.

Let me give you an example… One of the companies I cover in training is a leading gourmet retailer. I’m intentionally leaving out their name here but they are very recognizable and most likely have a store location a short distance from where you are now. Their sales/customer service model for employees is a fairly straightforward 3 principles: Connect, Discover, Respond. This is how employees are trained and what they should be doing on a customer-by-customer basis to deliver the best results for the customer and, ultimately, the business.

The reality is that this model, and every other training model, only works when the employees that need to carry it out have true PRIDE. When I teach about the gourmet retailer, I often hear “I’ve been there… that didn’t happen to me”. That is true and the root cause as to why is usually the employees lack of PRIDE.

Doesn’t training teach PRIDE? Good question.. In short, no. As the first letter implies, PRIDE is something personal. While it should certainly be reinforced in training, PRIDE is born in the individual then fostered by effective leadership and enriched by a winning team culture environment.

Here’s another example…

A popular restaurant chain (again, leaving name out intentionally) with locations through-out North America trains their staff that when greeting a party seated at their table they should 1) squat down to eye level or sit at table if a seat is available and 2) ask if guests have been to the restaurant before so they can welcome appropriately. In my frequent travels, I have personally dined at dozens of different locations in their chain very likely over 60 times in the past 10 years alone. Over that time, I have only seen this simple 2-step greeting performed maybe 25% of the time and I’d bet that percentage is fairly accurate for all guest interactions across the chain. Again, ALL staff is trained that way, not 25%. A major factor, if not the biggest culprit for this deficiency, is a lack of PRIDE.

The sad fact is many employees that attend training (and ultimately work for a business) are tourists, they’re just along for the ride and really don’t care what the company wants. The most important thing to these disengaged folks when they attend training is “what time is lunch?” and “when do we get out of here?”

Your organization may be preaching and teaching world-class practices and principles but if the employees don’t buy-in and commit to practicing PRIDE then results will suffer.

PRIDE is the executable of Pinnacle Performance. To maximize results, all employees must practice PRIDE every day in all customer interactions.

Steve Ferrante is the CEO & Trainer of Champions of Sale Away LLC., providing Pinnacle Performance Sales, Customer Service and Winning Team Culture training, speaking and professional development services to success-driven businesses throughout North America. For more information on Steve and Pinnacle Performance services visit saleawayllc.com. Steve can be reached @ steve@saleawayllc.com